Vipond Adventures: February 2009

Well there are a few things I left out in the previous blog. One is my wakeboarding/waterskiing adventure. Andrew and I decided to take a day and go check out Blue Rock. It is a small freshwater lake that has cable waterskiing. It was about a 45 min drive out of Cape Town and about a $50 taxi ride one way. We figured it would be WAY more fun to rent a car and head out ourselves. We walked to a convertible car rental place just down the road and inquired about a car for about 6hrs. Nope they only rented by the day but, even at that, it was still only $80 so we did it. Of course we figured it would be hilarious to be driving on the left side of the road but we took the challenge. The man hooked us up with an old blue MG and we were on our way. A few wrong turns and we eventually made it. We were the only people there which made it that much better. After renting our wakeboards, and one waterski, we heading down to the cable to get a lesson on how to do this thing. Well it works pretty slick. You just sit on a bench over the water as the guy hands you the rope (wooden handle) once the cableway catches onto your rope you have about 2 sec to hold tight and then your gone. Well at least that was what it looked like. We very quickly realized that it was not like a boat where you have a gradual increase in speed, haha no way! This cableway continuously goes around the lake at 30km/h and DOES NOT lag when you hook on!! So imagine sitting on a bench with skis on (or in my case only one ski which is worse) and then going from zero to 30km/h instantly! Yes it did take us 1 or 2 attempts to know the feeling and I am sure my arms a little longer now. It was incredible! You will see in the picture what I mean. We spent about 3 hrs there and then headed back to Cape Town to meet up with the girls at the beach.

Now for the biker boys...

In the middle of all this we ran across the Harley-Davidson dealership in Cape Town. What a beautiful shop with bikes spread all down the front sidewalk. After explaining to one salesman my harley background he agreed to let me fire up a 09 Fat Bob to hear the custom pipes they had installed on it. Needless to say, when the time comes, (that I have many many grey hairs or no hair at all), the Harley of my choice is undoubtedly the "Fat Bob". It is an excellent cross between the Night Train and Fat Boy (my two favorites) also sporting Harley's new dual headlamps....Beautiful!! The salesman also showed us around the dealership at all the new 09's in stock. For $100 you could rent a 09 bike for the day. I was VERY temped, but when I looked in the mirror there were no grey hairs yet. Haha sorry boys I gotta make a little fun when I can here.

Alright well I also threw a couple more pictures on here from our safaris and what not. I just got them from Andrew and Kristy.

Enjoy.

One Wildebeast patty one beef patty. They know how to make a burger!

Here's our rental car

Here's me getting ready

Oh crap! Stretch Armstrong

This is way across the lake zoomed in on me

No I don't run into the mountain, it turns way before that

The wakeboarding lake is in behind and down about 40ft

Here us on the 4am morning safari

Grill'n up some Wildebeast steaks

Those kababs have Kudu, Springbok, Wildebeast, and Eland on them

Poor picture of the lion cubs, very cute though. Mama was at our left rear tire.

It's not every day you can kiss a giraffe

Oh ya and a flat tire in the middle of the park!

We had that bugger changed in about 4 mins flat....pardon the pun.

Vineyard

Mama Africa restaurant and dance party. Kristy on the Xylophone

Captain quickly fixing the buoy. That was a little guy though only about 6ft

Arrival back at port

Heading back to Kuwait...."First Class" on Ethiopian Airlines. Sip'n on Bailey's and munch'n on Tenderloins. Best flight I have ever been on.

Ryan has a tendency to "hog the blog" so I have wormed my way in here to write a personal perspective on Africa.

First things first, Africa has been in my travel dreams for a long time. I have dreamed of African safaris, open air markets and meeting fabulous people from the various walks of African life for so many years I have lost count. When I look back at my middle school journal entries on "places I want to go"... mine always says Africa. So you can see how the expectations were high.

South Africa fulfilled my expectations because we got to experience typical African tourism. We did the "tourist route" of Africa's richest country. However, upon arrival in Cape Town we discovered that South Africa is not what one pictures a typical African city to be. Cape Town is an ultra modern coastal city with extremely friendly people and a European feel. This has been the easiest and most relaxed trip we have done. It has also been my favorite. I would go back in a heartbeat.

When Ryan finished off our last blog, he mentioned that we had 3 things left to do: A Wine Tour, Great White Cage Diving, and Table Mountain.

Wine Tours in South Africa are like a religion. South Africans make some of the best wine in the world and they know A LOT about making it. So when we departed on a wine tour at 9:30 am, I was naturally quite ready for an educational tours of wineries and a chance to taste an assortment of fabulous wines. With that in mind, I had never been on a South African wine tours and was not prepared for what was to come.

We ventured off with our tour group of 7 to start off to our first winery. We got a tour of the cellar and learned a TON about how they make wine and champagne. It is an amazing science. The tasting part came next. Then we stood up... and realized that we had each had about 6 glasses of wine. That's a large quantity of wine for anyone but it is especially large amount for those living in a dry country for 6 months. We giggled our way to the next and the next eating and drinking merrily throughout the journey. The cheese was just as good as the wine!

We managed to keep ourselves going and got along very well with our tour mates. So by 4 pm, after "tasting" wine for 6 hours, we decided it would be a great idea to go back and party for a bit with our new found friends. We went to a place called "Mama Africa" and got to eat an assortment of wild meats; Springbok, Kudu, Ostrich, Eland, and even Crocodile! And of course, we drank more wine. We decided to make it an "early night" when we looked at the clock at 11 pm and realized that we were dancing to African music in the middle of a restaurant. We needed to be "responsible" because we had to get up at 5 am for a Shark dive. 5 am came very early the next day....

We managed to drag ourselves to the Bus and sleep for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Gaansbaii where we met up with our Captain. The water was rough and the visibility was terrible. It was cold out and not what we had in our minds as ideal but it was down to the wire and we were NOT going to miss this opportunity. We set out on the high seas and bashed through the waves for 20 minutes to reach the reef where the Great White sharks frequent. The crew on the boat was amazing and began baiting immediately. We learned a ton about sharks and how to bait them so if you want to try and get some to come out for a rum cruise on Rocky was can try our luck!!

As we waited for the sharks to show up the waves began to take their toll on my stomach. I wasn't as bad off as some who were with the on the boat... they spent the entire trip hanging over the side of the boat. I lost my breakfast and donated to the shark bait (You know me... always trying to help out and do my part) but it was the shakes that were overwhelming. I could barely stand up! A very strange feeling indeed! However I am convinced that it was my donation of bait that worked the best... Great Whites must really like toast and orange juice because within 5 minutes one showed up at the boat!

He jumped out of the water and grabbed the bait right beside the boat. Needless to say... we screamed. They are huge fish! He came around a couple of times and that's when the captain asked, "Who's going in?" Even though I was shaky and very nervous to jump in the water with a hungry Great White, I volunteered to be in the first group to go in the cage and it was worth it! I was second in the cage and as the others were getting in the cage that big bugger came back and I got to meet him up close and personal. I think he smiled at me but that didn't really put me at ease as much as the cold water that numbed all nervousness. Because the visibility was terrible I was lucky that I got such a good view. We didn't get to see much beyond shadows besides that while my crew was in the cage. Ryan went in later and got a good view of a shark about an hour after me. What a great day!

The next day Ryan and I got up and decided to hike up Table Mountain. Table Mountain is a 3500 ft Plateau in the middle of Cape Town. We had been warned it was a tough hike up the gorge but we were ready. Ryan took it like a champ. I'm so impressed but I credit his long legs for helping him out. Basically it's like taking really huge stairs the entire way up the gorge. I last for 65% of the hike without a problem but hit the wall for the last part. I made it up but my lungs felt like they were bleeding. It was worth every second because the view we got was beautiful and it was a great workout. Just goes to prove that doing aerobics and running on a treadmill only gets you so far!

We made the 18 hour journey home yesterday and arrived home at 5 am this morning. We are back to school tomorrow and then our next big journey with be the one to Canada in 4 months!